Quote Originally Posted by curious aardvark View Post
it really is interesting. Pretty much everyone at the tct show was using pla and most when asked just thought abs was an awful out of date material and wouldn't use it.

And yeah for the shrinkage thing - just adjust the size before printing.
It's not a major problem - but it is a 'thing'.

So have you enclosed your creator sebastian ?
I still have a lot of abs on the shelf - thinking about enclosing the klic'n'print and trying it in that.
Mind you I've got used to my workshop NOT smelling of hot chemical plastic, so who knows :-)

oh yeah check out the material characteristics of polymaker's poly max. Pla that beats abs in pretty much all specs.
http://www.polymaker.com/wp-content/...PLA_TDS-v1.pdf

I find that all the ingeo based filaments I've tried are just really tough. The parts I make that undergo the most stress, have always lasted longer in pla than abs.
Like all things it's swings and roundabouts - I can only go by what I;ve made and how well it's done what i wanted it to. And in that respect pla always out performs abs.

I guess the acetone smoothing could be a positive.
I'm just glad I don't have to use it any more :-)

The thing is that bot pet and polycarbonate are generally better than and and print easier. Prices are coming down and pla is improving all the time.

Abs is cheap :-)
But for me the warpage, smell and reliance on acetone just massively outweigh any potential benefits.
PLA doesn't have the strength that I need. ABS does - at least in the filament I own. I also believe that I have clogged my extruder or the filament feed system, because I'm getting a clicking noise when it prints, or when I go to the menu and feed filament. I've read that it is sometimes dust buildup in the tube, which may also be clogging my extruder?

I would be curious to see what the ABS prints look like in a correctly configured printer.

I have two other issues/questions:
1. One of the things I notice with rafting and supports is that my bottom layers (or underside of the build object) aren't anywhere near as clean as the top and sides. What is that an indicator of?

2. I'm not sure how to resolve that, either. So for clarification as to my parts not fitting - when I print shells - do those count against my tolerances - if so how much? IE, if I print a 2mm radius circle cutout, will a 1.99mm object fit into that? How do I know how much room to give the build so the objects freely fit inside?